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Who are the "Big Clubs" in England and who just think they are?

Football Food For Thought RSS / / 03 October 2008 / 1

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Sick of listening to football fans from all around the country talk about how they support "big clubs", TQ looks to define what being a big club is and which English clubs can rightfully claim to belong to the select group.

Nobody ever said that being a football fan was easy. At times it can be downright infuriating. The highs and lows that any one team can reach are perplexing but I guess that is why we turn up each week. Never demonstrated more clearly than for the fans of Arsenal last week. A defeat at home to Hull in the Premier League was unthinkable for both sets of fans but sure enough it happened, and in the process blew out almost every accumulator in the country. That very same Arsenal side then come out a few days later and bang four past a beleaguered Porto in the Champions League. This wonderful game really is something else.

Arsenal fans though really don't have too much to be upset about as their team is just two points off the top spot in the Premier League and are currently top of their Champions League group. Whilst Arsenal fans have little to worry about that is not the case for their north London rivals Spurs, who are undoubtedly a club in crisis. They and Newcastle are making plenty of the sporting headlines at the moment as these supposed big clubs are in turmoil. Are they really 'big clubs'? I mean, what really denotes a big club? There has to be a cutoff point as we would have half the teams in England claiming they are a big club....and quite often do.

Surely the very least you need to be a big club is a decent collection of silverware. Preferably something in the last fifty years as there has to be a case for your 'big club' status expiring. You need a team who has tradition and has not just achieved success overnight. A team who can claim a big band of supporters who will follow them through thick and thin.

Amongst football fans all across the country you can guarantee that every day there are endless arguments about whether someone's team is a big club. A recent example is Man City, often thought of as the poor city neighbours of Man Utd. Now they have enormous wealth and great potential to make great inroads to becoming a successful team. But are they a big club? I'm afraid not. As I mentioned before, there has to be a cutoff point and a couple of league titles, four FA Cup wins and a Cup Winners Cup is a decent return but not enough to merit big club status. Maybe if they win the UEFA Cup this season they can start to re-apply but if I was them, I would wait until another league title is in the bag first. The UEFA Cup is certainly not beyond them and they are currently backable at [14.5] to take that trophy.

Just a quick glance at the Championship table shows a plethora of teams who would fancy themselves as big clubs. Propping up that league are Nottingham Forest, a team who will stake their claim based on European success. Back-to-back European Cup wins are incredibly impressive and as one of only four English teams ever to taste success in that competition it is hard to turn them down. But that is exactly what I am going to do based on the fact that virtually all their success came from that one team over a couple of years. That may seem harsh but nobody said it was going to be an easy group to get in. Forest fans should concern themselves more with getting off the bottom of the league and avoiding relegation to League One. After their poor start, Forest can be backed at just [2.54] in the league Relegation market.

League One boasts an applicant in Leeds Utd but once again they fall short with three top titles and one FA Cup trophy. Had they beaten Bayern Munich in the European Cup final in 1975 I might have let them in, but we will never know. As it is, they need to concentrate on getting out of League One and are currently [3.25] to take that title.

Another that can try but will fail are Sheff Wednesday. Iif they had achieved anything decent in the last fifty years they may be in but it was all too long ago. The closest to success was Wolves and on a different day they may have gained the ultimate status. I am sure you are now thinking "well just tell us who the big clubs are then..." what I can tell you is that Spurs, Newcastle and Chelsea were so so close to making it.

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  1. Kwabena Dankwa | 21 April 2009

    A big club is a club that has a large following and does well, depending on the parameters defined. Period.
    You should make a distinction between a GOOD club and a GREAT club. A GREAT club, like Barcelona, AC Milan, Man U, Liverpool, Real Madrid and Juventus should have been dominant in the past, and still dominant in all competitions it finds itself in. Other clubs such as Benefica, Marseille and Ajax who have done well in the past but have now fallen off would not be in this category.

    Your darling Arsenal would then be in the same group as Porto, Lyon, Inter Milan, Roma, Chelsea and Celtic, who are regarded as big guns in their domestic league, but generally huff and puff in Europe. They are good clubs, whether they have a 'history' or not.